Strategic Marketing in Hospitality: InterContinental Hotel Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of hospitality marketing essentials, focusing on the InterContinental Hotel as a case study. It begins by defining marketing services, outlining their characteristics, current and future trends, and core concepts. The report details the roles and responsibilities of marketing functions and their interrelation with other departments like sales, research and development, human resources, and finance. It compares how hospitality organizations use the elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) to achieve business objectives, highlighting specific strategies employed by InterContinental, Ritz Carlton, and Marriott hotels. The analysis covers product, price, place, promotion, people, physical evidence, and process. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of marketing in various industries and its integral role across all organizational functions, further a marketing plan is developed to meet marketing objectives for a hospitality organisation.

Hospitality Marketing
Essentials

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO-1.................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction of marketing services..............................................................................................3
Characteristics of marketing.......................................................................................................3
Current and future trends in the market......................................................................................4
Concepts of marketing................................................................................................................4
Roles and responsibility of marketing functions.........................................................................5
Marketing interrelated with other functional departments..........................................................5
LO– 2...............................................................................................................................................6
Marketing mix and 7 P’s.............................................................................................................6
Comparison in which hospitality organisations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) for
achieving overall business objectives.........................................................................................7
Different tactics applied by the organizations to achieve business objectives..........................10
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................10
Marketing plan..........................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industries is a service industry include broad category of different fields
which deals with food and beverages services, lodging, travel and tourism, theme parks (Mensah,
2021). Hospitality is spreading at wide rate for consumer satisfaction managing various factors in
all the fields. The activities of hospitality marketing vary from one company to another company
because of different products and services. The InterContinental Hotel is international luxury
hotel providing hospitality services worldwide and offers distinctive style from heritage elegance
to urban chic. This report is all about highlighting meaning of marketing and there
characteristics, trends and concepts. Further, involves roles and responsibilities of marketing and
its interrelation with other functional units. Moreover report will compare the use of marketing
mix to achieve overall business objectives with develop plan to meet marketing objectives for a
hospitality organisation.
LO-1
Introduction of marketing services
Marketing is an activity of promoting and advertising of new products and services
worldwide at reasonable and affordable cost (Pike, 2020). Every industry needs marketing
strategies to make their products information available at every place for more competition.
Characteristics of marketing
 Marketing is a wide function: Marketing is a wide scope because it is applied
worldwide with every business organisation whether it is small or big. Its functions are
also wide because it deals in millions of products and services and to collect all the
information from the market or from the consumers (Mathur,2020).
 Consumer satisfaction is the main goal: The first and the foremost aim are to satisfy
consumer needs and wants because they are the focal point marketing activities. All the
information related to price, packaging, distribution channels are done on the basis of
consumers.
 Marketing is an exchange process: Exchanging of products is the essence of marketing
and the work of marketing is to sell the firms product at profits and making them
available to consumer at reasonable cost.

 Marketing is continuous process: Marketing is a continuous process because it
involves regular investigation of the markets and customers. After the sale of products the
marketing process remains continued by the company to know the customer preference
and demand of the customers.
 Uncertainty of marketing environment: The market is unstable due to changing taste
and preferences of the customers and marketer need to investigate the market daily for
their products.
Current and future trends in the market
 Current trends: The present change in marketing is the marketers are more innovative
and have the ability evaluate the plan to reach the potential customers. The present trends
are more use of e-commerce activities, new social media trends, programmatic
advertising etc. Most of the markets are still underdeveloped and need more time and
advance techniques for growth the work on them are still going.
 Future trend: The future trends are developing on fast rate with greater degree use of
social media marketing .The role of programmatic advertising and artificial intelligence
growth and social media playing a great role in creating a more advanced market for the
consumers. A lot of work is in progress for the diversification of the marketing channels
because of the increasing use of social media.
Concepts of marketing
 Deciding the market: The marketer has to decide the target market on with all the
policies and strategies are plan and the market which having huge consumers will be
selected. The products which have very low demand are reproduced and better
designing are done to increase its demand.
 Needs of customer: Customer satisfaction is the main goal satisfying their needs and
producing products according to their needs and their taste and preferences are taken into
consideration.
 Price discrimination: Deciding the price of the product for different products so that
seller gets the maximum price as they want and buyers are willing to pay for the
products.

 Production concept: Production of products should not more then the demand of the
products they should match each other. More the production of the products less will be
its demand and vice versa.
Roles and responsibility of marketing functions
 Roles of marketing: The first and foremost role is managing the brand like the
InterContinental Hotel maintaining his brand worldwide by his good hospitality services.
The hotel is maintain campaign management for marketing activities and producing
promotional materials and selecting the agencies who provide marketing support . This
hotel is managing all his social media marketing activities online through its sites to
know his position in the present market. And making direct contact with the
intermediaries or the team for widening the market or deciding the prices for customer
satisfaction.
 Responsibility of marketing: The main responsibility of the InterContinental hotel is
listening to customer needs as per priority and demanding their feedbacks to know the
position in the market (Yurchuk,2020). This hotel is tracking and monitoring the
activities to know the competition and to learn the techniques to the best and identifying
their mistakes avoiding any kind of mistakes. This hotel keep on searching for new
marketing tools and communicating them with the all the marketing members.
Marketing interrelated with other functional departments
 Marketing with sales department: Marketing is interrelated with sales department
because both the department work together in a business. The Intercontinental Hotel keep
checking that the sales department selling products or services according to the needs of
the consumers. Both are working with the same motive is to earn more profit with more
sales and with customer satisfaction.
 Marketing with research and development: The Intercontinental Hotel directly deals
with research and development for new ideas, innovation, and creative new products with
reasonable rates (Tien,2019). This hotel researches are done for creating new market and
for new consumer and what type of distribution channel should be selected for cheap and
easy transportation services.
 Human resource with marketing: The work of human resource management is the
same as marketing to attract people for their organisation. The InterContinentalhotel

ensures to attract the customer for their needs and human resource management is
recruiting the right people for doing this marketing task in a specialised way.
 Marketing with Finance department: The main role plays by InterContinental Hotel is
the finance department from which all the funds for doing any activities like
advertisement, promotions are done (Deepak, 2019). Finance department take cares of the
cost and risk of the organisation and avoids financial blunders if arise, and avoiding
activities which are unnecessary and leads to cost making. It also ensures that low cost
techniques should be chosen for more profits and less risk
Interrelated fuctions of marketing with other functional units of the
Intercontinental hotel is human resource management. The work of human resource is
almost same as marketing marketing focus on attracting as much customers as much it
can and human resource of Intercontinental hotel is the same to attract customers for
earning huge profits. Another role is finance department of this hotel who is involving its
funds inadvertising and promotional activities. Marketing does the same.
From the above report it has been concluded that marketing is important in every
types of industries. Whether it is profit making or non profit making. Marketing plays a
key role in all the department of the organisation and it is interrelated with all the
functions of the mangagement .
LO– 2
Marketing mix and 7 P’s
Speaking in relation with the marketing mix, it is one of the most common utilized
strategy by the marketing managers for the purpose of evaluating the present condition of the
market and for the development of an effective marketing plan. In addition to this, marketing
mix comprises the components which are crucial for the firm from production to selling of the
product. Thus, it can be taken into account as a set of marketing tools which are blended together
for generating a marketing reaction in the market. Each and every firm makes use of this toll for
developing effective marketing plan (Lam and Harker, 2015). Primarily, the main emphasis of
the firms were used to be on the 4P’s which comprised place, promotion, price and product.
However, with the development of the strategic role of marketing, it was essential to encompass
many other facets which can help in making sure the attainment of the long term objectives of

the firm. The extended three P’s comprised people, physical evidence and process. All these
extended three P’s has made an important contribution towards offering knowledge on the
strategic role of marketing and has allowed the firms to augment the attention on these aspects
for continuously relishing the enhanced situation of market. Moreover, the extension of the three
P’s has also allowed inter-continental hotel to augment their emphasis on making improvement
in its processes, human resources and physical evidence for offering value for money to its
people and achieving an edge over the other firms in the market (Oladepo and Abimbola, 2015).
Comparison in which hospitality organisations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) for
achieving overall business objectives
Marketing mix
elements
Inter-continental
hotel
Ritz Carlton hotel Marriott hotel
Product The inter-continental
hotel is one the
biggest hotel chains
of UK. The hotel has
around 200 rooms
and a multi-storey
building and each of
the room are being
equipped with latest
technologies such as
AC, television Wi-
Fi, refrigerators and
so forth.
Additionally, there
are three restaurants
which are being
located at the ground
floor of the hotel. It
includes pool, bar,
Ritz Carlton hotel
also offers
exceptional services
and products to their
important customers
such as comfortable
setting, big rooms,
spas, beach, pool,
bar, banquet hall,
conference hall,
restaurant, play area
and many others.
Even the hotel offers
the facility of Yacht.
There are different
resorts and outdoor
and indoor venues
being provided by
the firm.
Marriott is one of
the most recognized
luxury hotel across
the globe. the
product of the
services is being
segregated into three
parts that is core,
augmented and
actual which
includes different
services such as
resorts, hotels and
lounges, lodges,
hospitality
management etc.
Even the brand of
the hotels is sub-
categorised into

gym area, food
court, restaurants
and laws (IHG
Hotels and Resorts,
2021).
different categories
such as e
MERIDIEN, Westin,
Renaissance hotels
etc.
Price The pricing strategy
being followed by
the his hotel is
premium pricing
strategy
The pricing strategy
being followed by
the his hotel is
premium pricing
strategy
The prices are being
determined
considering the
value with quality
framework. the hotel
majorly follows
competitive pricing
strategy
Place Properties are
located on the prime
location and the
hotel is present in
almost major cities
of different nations
such as UK, USA,
India etc.
They are operating
in many parts of the
world Arizona,
California, Ohio,
New York, Florida
and many more. In
addition to this, the
hotels and properties
of the hotel are
being located at the
prime location (The
Ritz Carlton, 2021)
They have their
established hotels in
almost 100 nations
of the world and all
are located at the
prime locations.
Promotion Majorly pays
attention on word-of
mouth- marketing,
advertising and
sponsorships.
The hotel focusses
on mouth-of-word
promotional
strategy, loyalty
schemes, rewards
programs and
The hotel majorly
pays attention on the
digital promotional
strategies such as
websites,
advertisement,

incentives for
promoting their
products and
services
videos and
campaigns. Social
media is also being
utilized.
People The employees in
the hotel are well
trained and skilled.
People also includes
guest, employees
such as chef,
waiters, cook,
maintenance
personnel, managers
and other important
staff.
The hotel offers
employment
opportunities to
number of expatriate
staff. The staff are
well educated and
skilful.
The hotel cannot
function without a
skilled and efficient
workers and thus,
they majorly focuses
on employing well-
trained and qualified
workers (Explore
our brands, 2021).
Process The hotel is very
process oriented as
they have fixed
routine for each and
every small tasks
such as changing of
flowers to offering
services to the
guests. Even the
hotel has a separate
set of processes for
different operations
of departments.
They have different
processes elated to
online booking, stay
and other operations.
Different business
process is being
adopted by the firm
for customer service
and comfortable stay
of the guests.
Physical evidence Infrastructure is the
biggest sources of
competitive
Different physical
evidence such as
booklets, pens,
Cordial and peaceful
environment, good
ambience and

advantage (Dunne,
Lawlor and Rowley,
2018)
soaps, aesthetic
beauty.
architecture
Different tactics applied by the organizations to achieve business objectives
There are different tactics being applied by intercontinental hotel for attaining the
objectives of the business such as defining the market of the firm, creation of the market
segment, construction of segmentation process, segment attraction and many other (De Mooij,
2017). Further, intercontinental hotel makes use of such marketing strategies which are based on
enhancement of the strategic idea of growth and the market. In this regards the hotel ensure that
the target market are engaged with the marketing as well as selling of their product. Other than
this, for attaining the desired objective the hotel adopts different tactics that is firstly research is
done which helps the firm in making assumption about financial and non-financial requirement,
secondly, it involves making of strategy, thirdly it includes planning which consider execution of
strategy and finally, estimation is performed.
LO 3
Marketing plan
Overview
The current trend within the hospitality sector is relating to the rise of staycations. This
concept involves the fact that person or individual stays near to home rather than travelling to
other places. With respect to the pandemic most of the people have become more comfortable
with respect to the staying at home (Chernev, 2020). So IHG is also planning to focus on
providing the facility of staycation to the visitors coming to the place. Here the
hotel will provide a setup like home so that visitor can feel as they are at
their home only.
Vision
The vision of IHG hotel is to provide best staycation services so that experience of visitor
gets enhanced.
Mission

The mission of the hotel it to be supportive and provide the best quality services to
increase the profitability of the business.
Objectives
 To increase the sales of company by 23 % till end of August 2022 by way of introducing
staycation.
 To invest 26 % of the money within the marketing of the new service in order to increase
the working of the company.
 To work on using latest technology by increasing investment by 14% and work on repeat
consumer by 16%.
PEST
Elements Description
Political factors In the current market condition the tax rate is
low which is beneficial for the company as
they have to pay less taxes.
Economical factor Currently the purchasing power is very high
and this implies that hotel staycation will be
liked by the consumers.
Social factor With respect to the social factor the people
after pandemic has focused more towards
staying home and because of this the new
service of staycation will be helpful in order to
improve the working.
Technological factor For the installing of new service of staycation,
the use of latest technology will be helpful as it
will provide best services to visitors and will
help in better working.
SWOT
Strength
The key strength of IHG is that it has a great
focus on consumer experience and CRM.
Weakness
The weakness of company is that it has fallen
from the worldwide position.

Another strength is that there are many
strategic partnerships with other companies to
expand brand portfolio.
Another weakness of hotel is that there is weak
IT security and many information was also
stolen.
Opportunity
The opportunity for hotel to grow and develop
is to increase presence in the developing
countries as well.
Another opportunity for the company is that
they must focus on the technological
advancement.
Threat
The most common threat which can affect the
working efficiency of the company is the
intense and high competition.
Competitor analysis
Basis IHG Hyatt
Product The new service of IHG is to
provide facility of staycation
to the visitor coming to the
place
It involves all the different
services like facility of resort,
hotel and other related service.
Price The pricing strategy used is
penetration pricing as it
attracts large number of
consumers.
Hyatt undertakes the use of
price skimming method for
charging to consumer.
Promotion With respect to promotion the
use of modern and traditional
marketing is used.
More focus is on the modern
marketing techniques.
STP approach
Element Description
Segmentation The segment is dividing the number of
consumer on the basis of some common
features. The segment for promotion of
staycation will be based on demographic and